From what we’ve seen in 2018 EU LCS Summer Week 8, Ashe and Varus are back in the meta. Also, having Teleport on 3-4 members of the teams seem to be the norm now, despite the recent nerfs.

Either way, the region has almost finalized the group stage as we inch closer to the playoffs. As of the moment, the team that’s already slated for the playoffs are: Fnatic, Misfits, G2 Esports, Vitality, Splyce and Schalke 04. The only thing up in the air is their respective placements.

Having said that, we took the time to recap everything you about how the 2018 EU LCS Summer Week 8 went down, and what implications it might hold for the future.

ROCCAT and Giants Are Out

Momento tried his best this year, but his team may have let him down. Perhaps next year will serve him better. (via LoL Esports Flickr)

Both these teams aimed to hit the playoffs, and it was quite the possibility till all the life was snuffed out of them by superior teams. Giants were actually looking really good until the very last minute. Djoko clearly said that he had faith in his team, which was more than enough for us to believe him; he stated that Giants could even defeat Fnatic with this current mindset, but he turned out to be wrong.

Fnatic were the ones who gave them the final defeat which ended their miracle run, and it wasn’t exactly a close game. The only consolation for Giants was that Steeelback had the upper hand on Rekkles for most of the game, and even managed to kill him multiple times, which is quite an achievement in itself. This is nothing to say for the utter destruction they had to face at the hands of Schalke 04, who showed them absolutely no mercy.

ROCCAT Were Just Simply Outclassed

ROCCAT also had a good chance to join the playoffs line up. Well, they didn’t exactly have a good chance, but it was existent nonetheless. This team had been having 1-1 weeks for as long as we can remember. However, recently this trend collapsed completely for them, and we saw them undergo a losing spree for multiple weeks straight. This destroyed their win rates, and forced them in a position where they had to make a miracle run, just like Giants, to make it through.

They couldn’t, however. The main problem we saw was their inability to close out games, not that it matters anymore.

We’re hoping that these two teams will find a way to overcome their weaknesses, and come back as better teams next year.

UOL and H2K Looked Great

Newsflash: it’s too late for these teams to make it any further into the split. They don’t have enough wins to enter the playoffs stage, but that doesn’t seem to deter them from trying their level best to win games. In fact, they’ve suddenly become far better teams, and their performance is stellar compared to the teams they were at the start of the split.

Caedrel is an assertive jungler who loves making early game plays. He invades the enemy jungle, and mostly gets the better deal unless he’s properly dealt with, which is exactly what Vitality did to counter him. Even then, his team was able to take the game into the late stages. If they keep on learning from such mistakes, they’ll turn into one formidable team.

As for UOL, they haven’t had any roster changes, but their playstyle is still miles beyond anything we saw from them this entire year. Now, their only purpose in the split is to make life difficult for the teams who do have a chance at playoffs, or did, as Unicorns of Love took it upon themselves to remove ROCCAT from the scene.

Unicorns of Love Have Found Their Old Selves Again

The entirety of UOL’s roster played the game against ROCCAT ultra-clean. Sammux does exactly what he was meant to while playing Kai’Sa, and demolished the enemy once he scaled up. Meanwhile, WhiteKnight wrecked ROCCAT during teamfights with his AP Kennen.

Exileh made aggressive plays the likes of which we haven’t seen in a long time, even internationally. He practically suicided just to secure a kill onto the enemy support, which wasn’t very productive, but certainly sent a strong message.

Schalke 04 Are Slowly Becoming Gods

I don’t make this statement lightly: Schalke are indeed looking like the future of League of Legends right now. They went from being one of the worst teams in the scene to a contender for the first place in the EU LCS ladder. The 2018 EU LCS Summer Week 8 was enough to show that they’ve become something truly remarkable right now.

Fans and haters alike were skeptical when Amazing first joined the team. The player hadn’t been active for a split, and wasn’t considered to be top tier anyway. However, his arrival completely flipped the tables for this team. Their only problem was shot calling and team communication. It was clear that the team comprised of talented individuals, but they were having trouble closing out games even if they had the lead.

Now, the entire team knows what they’re doing at all stages of the game. Each member is highly dependable, and nearly perfect in their execution. Amazing plays the game out carefully, but can easily make the right aggressive plays every time they’re needed. Vizicsacsi can hold his own, and can play a wide range of champions. Nukeduck has played a unique champion for almost every game of the split, and still came out on top.

The perfect macro game that this team had against Giants was extremely similar to that of the top tier teams in the LCK, like Kingzone DragonX. We won’t be too surprised if this team not only wins the split, but goes really far into Worlds this year.

Fnatic Lock in the Top Spot

Rekkles may have been subbed out again, but he’s an integral part of the Fnatic family. (via LoL Esports Flickr)

Not that anyone’s really surprised by this piece of news. We all knew subconsciously that Fnatic would rise all the way up – it’s in the team’s genes. They’re always relevant in the region no matter what, and it’s been that way for a really long time. However, there are some points to ponder for this team. Even though they’ve won, things aren’t going perfectly for this team.

They struggled far more than they should have during their match against Splyce, which went on for over 50 minutes. Granted, they did start throwing due to overconfidence, but that’s no excuse for the best team of the EU LCS. The ending of 2018 EU LCS Summer Week 8 was highly climatic, and there was a point where Splyce almost won the match, which is a really bad outlook for Fnatic.

They even had a hard time against Giants. It’s true that Giants were giving the match their all to keep their miracle run alive, however, the best team in the region shouldn’t be able to have an easy excuse like this to cover for them.

Fnatic best be on top of their game, because the international stage certainly won’t be as forgiving as their home region.

Misfits Are Slowly Going Down

Maxlore has been making the right plays for his team, but will they be enough moving forward? (via LoL Esports Flickr)

For the second half of the split, Misfits have lost almost as many games as they’ve won. In some weeks, they’ve had two losses, which doesn’t really make sense given the first half of the summer split. And now, in 2018 EU LCS Summer Week 8, the second last weeks of the regular season, we witnessed how Misfits crept further into their slump.

They had to try exceptionally hard just to defeat H2K, and even though H2K is undergoing a resurgence, we’d expect Misfits to overcome a team like them with ease. That says nothing about how G2 Esports were able to annihilate them during day 2 of the week. It does make a statement about G2, who played the game in a calm and calculated manner. Misfits weren’t able to stand up to them in the slightest.

Jesiz could definitely perform better

One factor that we’d blame for their loss against G2 Esports is Jesiz. Jesiz is an extremely experienced player, but he doesn’t seem to be what Misfits need right now. His shot calling seems to be having negative effects on the team, as firstly he didn’t allow Hans Sama to play Draven against Hjarnan’s Xayah, which would have been a winning pick, and secondly, his ults on Tahm Kench were excruciatingly questionable and probably cost them the game.

After 2018 EU LCS Summer Week 8, it’s clear that Misfits will need to do something about their recent woes, because, as it is, it’s near impossible for them to make it to Worlds 2018 this way, let alone with the split.

What do you think about how 2018 EU LCS Summer Week 8 turned out? Were you disappointed that your favorite teams couldn’t make it through, or were you supporting the winning teams all along? Let us know in the comments below!

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